CVE-2021-23792: XML External Entity (XXE) Injection

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2022-05-06 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-611

Description

The package com.twelvemonkeys.imageio:imageio-metadata before 3.7.1 are vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) Injection due to an insecurely initialized XML parser for reading XMP Metadata. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability if they are able to supply a file (e.g. when an online profile picture is processed) with a malicious XMP segment. If the XMP metadata of the uploaded image is parsed, then the XXE vulnerability is triggered.

Affected products

com.twelvemonkeys.imageio:imageio-metadata: before 3.7.1 — fixed in 3.7.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: com.twelvemonkeys.imageio:imageio-metadata 3.7.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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